By Judie Brown
The Lowly I remember was an adorable Richard Scarry character who fascinated us when our grandchildren were hearing the stories. But in daily life inchworms are very bad for plants, causing damage that can result in overall weakening. This reminds me of the effect abortion has had on the national psyche. Inch by inch, it has crept into the social fabric in such a way that far too many people no longer give a second thought to it.
Inside an abortion facility, patients can be brutalized in more ways than one, but the public is unaware of these situations. As abortion has slithered into the everyday lives of far too many people, the reality of what it is and whom it harms or kills becomes nothing more than an aspect of America’s fascination with controlling pregnancy.
Every once in a while the truth emerges and catches the attention of some, at least for a moment. Consider the Toni Morrison novel Beloved, which has been described as a story about the dehumanization of motherhood.
On the one hand it is a tale of escape from slavery, but on the other it is a brutal tale of killing an innocent child, Beloved, rather than subject her to enslavement at the hands of others. As a reviewer of this story writes, “Modern moral language often presents death as compassion in extreme circumstances. When a child might face suffering, hardship or instability, ending that life is sometimes framed as an act of protection.”
The inching along the spectrum of killing as an act of mercy is perhaps best exemplified in the rhetoric of those who justify killing the ill and disabled. The pro-death organization Compassion and Choices, for example, tells us that they “counter healthcare restrictions based on ethical and/or religious directives that impede patient choice and reduce end-of-life healthcare options such as those imposed by Catholic hospitals and hospices.”
They do this, of course, as individual human beings who have endowed themselves with the power to know what is best for the dying, even if it means inching the moment of death up a few days, weeks, or months.
These folks ply their wares whenever the law allows, inching into every manner of legally created nook and cranny. Such is the case in Washington state, where according to one report, a record 655 people died by assisted suicide in 2024 because killing in this manner is legal there. While this may not shock us, it is a dire warning that when the law affirms a right to kill anyone, there is the creeping ivy of acceptance of death by another’s hand or one’s own.
But just as the act of abortion is murder, so too are the acts that hasten death for any reason. So it stands to reason that when a society permits such acts against innocent persons for any reason, the slithering disease of indifference spreads like wildfire.
This is perhaps why Catholic author Flannery O’Connor wrote that “tenderness leads to the gas chamber.” In reference to this statement, Father Dwight Longenecker wrote that “the tenderness that is evidenced when this scenario unfolds is a kind of counterfeit compassion—a false tenderness.” He continued, “It is a counterfeit because it is founded on pride and self-righteousness. The falsely tender get more boosts to their own self esteem through their exercise of ‘compassion’ than any good they might do in the world, and because that self-righteousness is like a drug they will, like all addicts, go back for more, and like all drugs, the dosage needs to be increased in order to get the high.”
Thinking of these words in terms of those women who are brutalized by abortionists as their babies are killed, or Toni Morrison’s sad tale of Beloved, or the deceivers who tell us it is compassionate to decriminalize killing the vulnerable, we can clearly see that an addiction to killing is not only obvious but protected by law in far too many cases.
Lowly the Inchworm is a fictional creation, but the Deconstructing Truth Inchworm is alive and working every day to blind people to the reality of sin. This slithery creature is the devil incarnate. His wares may seem appealing, but that ticket to his abode should frighten the bejabbers out of people.
This is why we strive to defang wickedness by working, praying, and speaking of the goodness, the mercy, and the love of Christ. As Scarry said of Lowly, “Lowly Worm was so excited he could hardly wait to start.”
As pro-life Christians, we should be so excited to defend truth that we can hardly wait for opportunities to sow its seeds.